Foxconn Founder Terry Gou Announces Taiwanese Presidential Run This Time As An Independent

Terry Gou, founder of electronic manufacturing behemoth Foxconn, announced today that he is joining the race to be Taiwan's next president.

Gou will enter the fray as an independent.

Gou's bid as an independent follows his repeat failure to win the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) nomination.

In 2019, Gou resigned from Foxconn and joined the opposition KMT to contest for presidential primaries. However, Gou finished second in the KMT primary race and could not win the party nomination for the presidential race.

For the 2024 presidential election, KMT has chosen New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih as its candidate.

While Gou had initially indicated that he would express support for the candidate chosen by the party, he has now decided to contest the presidential election.

Terming the ruling Democratic Progressive Party(DPP) as 'corrupt', Gou said today that the regime could not offer a vision for the island state.

"In this presidential election, we must remove the corrupt and impotent DPP off the shelf to ensure the transfer of power … and bring the future of the Republic of China back to the right track," he said,

"In the past seven years, the situation in Taiwan has remained grim and its economy, defence and diplomacy have approached the edge of the cliff …. For this, we must pull the DPP off the shelf," the billionaire businessman said.

Assuring the country's citizens that he will deliver overall growth and prosperity, Gou vowed to catapult the Taiwanese economy to the next growth stage. He promised to spare no effort to ensure Taiwan overtakes Singapore "within 20 years" and reach Asia's highest GDP per capita.

"Give me four years and I promise that I will bring 50 years of peace to the Taiwan Strait and build the deepest foundation for the mutual trust across the strait … Taiwan must not become Ukraine and I will not let Taiwan become the next Ukraine." Gou added.

An opponent of the Taiwan independence movement, Gou has often suggested that DPP "exalts Taiwan independence and hates and opposes China".

DPP candidate and vice president William Lai is the favourite to win the 2024 presidential race.

Lai, who had previously referred to himself as a "worker" for Taiwanese independence, has moderated his position since taking the nomination. He has vowed to follow incumbent Tsai's cross-strait policy of maintaining the status quo,

Another contender in the race is Ko Wen-je, the Taiwan People's Party chairman.

According to a recent opinion poll, Lai has the support of 40 per cent of the voters compared with Ko at 25 per cent, Hou at 20 per cent and Gou at 15 per cent.

Gou has urged Ko and Hou to join forces and put a united candidate to the ruling party nominee.